Friday, May 11, 2012

AT LAST...almost

Here is an update on just what is
going on with the DVD presentation of the entire Cagney & Lacey series.
There will be two releases. The first will be a Limited Edition presentation in
what I have been told will be an attractive box, containing the 119 episodes
starring Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly PLUS the original TV movie, starring
Loretta Swit and the very first episodes where Meg Foster portrayed Christine
Cagney. There will be additional add-on material… some of it seen before from
various archival sources… and a new feature of Sharon and Tyne being
interviewed together specifically for this 30th anniversary celebration. This Limited
Edition will be signed by Sharon and Tyne and will be made available this
summer, long before the retail version goes on sale in USA stores.

We have already heard from over
two thousand of you expressing interest. Based on that, plus my own instincts,
I am betting the entire limited run of 3,000 will be sold only to the most
stalwart of fans… those of you reading this announcement. In the next few
weeks, I will let you know how to order directly from the distributor. I am
sorry to report this will not be made available in the UK or anywhere outside
of North America, but you very wonderful fans abroad can still make your
purchase direct from the North American distributor… and at a low enough price
that will allow you to be able to afford to purchase separately your own NTSC player. There will be no PAL release of this package in the foreseeable future.

Understand, please, this is my
last hurrah. It has taken me over 25 years to get Orion, MGM, and now their
licensee to release this package. By year’s end I am done. Sharon, Tyne and I
will participate in the retail promotion nationally in conjunction with the
arrival of the package at stores in the US this fall, but this special summer Limited
Edition will be pretty much a one-time offer to the tried and true who have
been with us for so long.

Okay… how will the retail package
differ from the Limited Edition? It will be cheaper by as much as 50% but will
not contain most (if any) of the added material and will not have the Swit or
Meg Foster work included. It will not be boxed and it will not be signed. It
will be a very Spartan presentation of what we call the “true series”… the 119
episodes with Sharon and Tyne. I am going to work on the distributor to spruce
it up a bit because I am (naturally) eager that this release be a success, but
in no way… no matter what I do… will it be a true collector’s edition. For that
you will have to act quickly via the Internet as soon as I give out that
information. Watch this space. I will be disseminating all the details in the
not too distant future.

Why am I writing this now, when
there is nothing I am (as yet) asking you to do? How many times have you noted
my paraphrase of the Gloria Steinem admonition to never let a group disperse
without telling them what you want them to do? Well, while it is true that the
time for action (that is, “purchase”) of the Limited Edition is still weeks
away, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless and I are getting together next week in New York
to tape our comments about the 30th anniversary and this special release. Here,
at last, is what I want you to do: Send us the questions you would like
answered. We will try to answer as many as we can in the hour of tape we will
cut together for the Limited Edition. Here’s your chance to play Charlie Rose or
Barbara Walters or whomever (albeit off camera), but please understand, in
order to participate we need to hear from you right away with your question(s).Please email your questions to me at contactus@cagneyandlacey.com.

22 comments:

Jennifer
said...

Very, very exciting. Does this mean the BFI event won't be included? I was REALLY hoping to see it in its entirety...how does one do that? Hoping the footage you tape next week lasts a good hour, if not longer...:)

I watch CBS This Morning most Sundays and often think what a great vehicle to showcase Sharon and Tyne/Cagney and Lacey...it was a CBS show after all. Would be great if you could get yourselves featured there in time for the dvd release -I clearly have too much invested in this show...:)

Barney, you are a star, thank you.Excited, yet nervous, and need to save very hard... due to needing an NTSC player, import tax and, as they say "Getting American DVDs to play on British players can be a risky, warranty-busting business..." But shall keep fingers crossed... Shame I don't have a birthday in the summer months!Hope you're healing well after your op.

Woohoo, at long last Cagney and Lacey are within reach...to enjoy over and over again! Thanks a million Barney for your hard work at making this happen! I will for sure be getting the Limited Edition, as I am a long time die hard fan. I agree with Jennifer, it would be awesome to see all of you on CBS This Morning :)

My understanding of what Barney says here is that whilst the DVDs are not expected to be available direct from shops outside the N American continent, UK and other European buyers will be able to order them direct from the N American distributor's site (to which we will link from the C&L website).

Although that will mean paying additional shipping, and (if applicable) customs charges, it does seem European fans WILL BE able to purchase the discs.

For copyright purposes, discs are usually encoded and work only in the region for which they are issued. USA/Canada uses Region 1 and UK and most of Europe use Region 2. For details please see the table at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code).

With reference to Barney's comments about an NTSC player, here's some further information:

Unless the distributor decides to issue the discs as region-free (region 0), they will be in Region 1 (North American/Canadian) format. To play these outside the North American etc region, you will need one of:

As far as playing the discs on a computer is concerned, again for copyrigt reasons you can usually only change the region 5 times before it locks permanently to the last region chosen. It can be unlocked but that requires playing around with the firmware and would invalidate any guarantee etc , it may be illegal and it is not for the faint-hearted.

A workaround, if you have two computers such as a desktop and a laptop, is to use one to play only region 1, and the other to play region 2, discs. That way the region will not lock on either computer and you will be able to play the C&L discs to your heart's content as well as any European discs.

Hope this is helpful to the many who have been enquiring about how to get/see the C&L discs in Europe!

So will this be region 0 or region 1? if its region 0 then we can play ntsc dvd's here in the uk. If not then it's really sad it won't be released in the uk and i won't be buying a new player just for this dvd sorry.

Barney, I have always admired your total commitment to this great show. I have been there to support you all along the way. I wrote CBS back in 1983 after they canceled the show and wrote my local newspaper too. I STILL have that bumper sticker you sent out to us fans at the time: "I helped save Cagney & Lacey." I had the privilege to meet you, Sharon and Tyne in New York back in 2007 at the DVD signing. Why can't you do some kind of advertising or work out some deal with the creators of "Burn Notice" to include some kind of "special feature" on one of their DVD releases for "Burn Notice?" Can't they have a bonus feature on one of the releases about Sharon's previous work on "Cagney & Lacey" and remind people of how great that series was? I'm sure most fans of "Burn Notice" don't even know Sharon starred in "Cagney & Lacey" and would be encourged to purchase the series if it was presented to them?Hope this helps with ideas to get the sales of the Cagney and Lacey DVD beyond expectations!!!

My mum and I are so looking forward to this! I'm in Australia, the distributor will send to here too???

With regards to NTSC/playing region 1 dvds etc, just about all dvd players/tvs in Australia have no problems playing either (most dvd players are either already set to region 0 or the codes are easily found to fix it). I believe the UK is similar.

I am too excited for words by this news! I have been waiting for the rest of the seasons to come out, and yet nothing has appeared on the horizon....and now this wonderful announcement! For fans of this iconic TV show, it feels like Christmas is coming in July!! I can not wait to see one of my favorite shows again in its entirety!